Purple Golden Pills Emerge from the Furnace, Tianlin Breaks Through Level Thirty

After chatting with Dugu Bo for half the night, Tianlin was roused by Dugu Bo's nudging early the next morning.

"Hey, Little Monster, look at the Alchemy Furnace."

The mention of the Alchemy Furnace jolted Tianlin awake. He immediately sat up and saw waves of purple light flickering across its outer surface.

"This is the sign that the Purple Golden Pills are complete. Old Monster, help me pull the Alchemy Furnace over here," Tianlin said excitedly.

Dugu Bo summoned his Jade Scale Serpent Emperor Martial Soul and used its snake tail to drag the Alchemy Furnace before Tianlin. Tianlin stepped forward and lifted the lid, and a rich medicinal fragrance immediately wafted out.

"This medicinal scent alone is making my Soul Power condense. Without a doubt, Little Monster, you succeeded," Dugu Bo exclaimed.

Tianlin fished the pills out of the Alchemy Furnace and counted them. There were six golden pills in total. Five of them glimmered with a purplish-golden radiance, their light flowing with extraordinary mystery.

"Alas!" Tianlin sighed. "Only five succeeded. The last one counts as a failure. Too much of its medicinal potency leaked away, so its effects are probably far inferior even to the original Nine Rank Purple Ganoderma."

"You little monster, aren't you being too greedy? The sun declines at its peak, and the full moon wanes. Even heaven and earth are not flawless. Don't pursue perfection too obsessively—it will affect your state of mind," Dugu Bo advised. Sometimes, knowing when to stop was by no means a bad thing. It might seem like a lack of ambition or an easy satisfaction with little, but perhaps that was simply the limit of what could be achieved.

If one insisted on continuing, the final result might well be a loss that outweighed the gain.

Tianlin smiled in relief. "You're right, Old Monster. I was being greedy. This alchemy session was already a success. Five Nine Rank Purple Golden Pills are enough for me to share with many people."

"Old Monster, take one first. Keep this failed one too. Although it has lost all its additional wondrous effects, it still contains considerable medicinal potency. If you ever run low on Soul Power, taking it can restore at least thirty or forty percent of it. It's a fine life-saving medicine."

"Thanks." Dugu Bo accepted the spirit medicine without ceremony. He had already decided to follow Tianlin from now on, so he felt no burden at all about taking some of his medicine.

Still, he did not intend to consume it right away. He had recently been taking Tianlin's detoxification pills, and mixing them might cause their medicinal effects to clash. He would wait until he was completely detoxified.

With the Purple Golden Pills complete, Tianlin had no intention of stopping. Now, he would begin refining the pill he truly wanted: the Mending Heaven Pill.

Using the Aromatic Silk Beauty as its foundation, it was the most elegant and noble pill in the world. It could absorb the essence of heaven and earth, along with the brilliance of the sun and moon. Those who consumed it would not only greatly enhance their strength and aptitude, but also make up for every innate deficiency, becoming a flawless and perfect body.

According to the Alchemy Chapter of Cao Gu's Hundred Herbs Record, a single Aromatic Silk Beauty could yield at most three Mending Heaven Pills. That had originally been Tianlin's goal, but Dugu Bo's words had awakened him. He now decided to focus all his efforts on refining two. As for the third, he would leave it to fate—whether it succeeded or failed did not matter.

After all, two were enough for both Ning Fengzhi and Ning Rongrong to achieve the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

However, refining the Mending Heaven Pill was nowhere near as simple as refining the Purple Golden Pill. Both the required herbs and the refinement time increased dramatically.

It required eighty-one days. Among the many supplementary medicinal ingredients, several were top-grade spirit medicines comparable to the Nine Rank Purple Ganoderma. Fortunately, this was the Ice Fire Yin Yang Well, where he could find everything he needed.

Following the records in Cao Gu's book, Tianlin added all the spirit medicines in the proper proportions, then submerged the Alchemy Furnace in the fire spring. The waters of the fire spring worked better than any flame. It was a superb place for alchemy.

Time passed swiftly, and sixty days went by in the blink of an eye. During that time, Tianlin returned to Heaven Dou Royal Academy twice, meeting once with the members of the Royal Fight Team and once with Xue Qinghe, so they would not worry.

Sword Douluo Chen Xin also came by once. He did not object to Tianlin learning poison from Dugu Bo. After all, while open attacks could be avoided, hidden arrows were hard to guard against. Once Tianlin learned this, he would be much safer when traveling the continent in the future.

Still, he could not neglect Tianlin's Soul Power growth. He feared Tianlin would focus only on learning poison and slacken in his own cultivation. But when he saw that Tianlin's Soul Power Level had already reached level twenty-nine, he finally left in satisfaction.

Today, Tianlin was going out once again. After three months of cultivation, he had not only fully assimilated the three levels of Soul Power granted by the immortal herbs, but had finally broken through to level thirty.

Tianlin was only around nine years old now, three years earlier than the original Tang San, who had reached level thirty at the age of twelve.

Sunset Forest was one of Douluo Continent's Soul Beast gathering grounds, second only to Star Dou Great Forest. It was very convenient for him to hunt Soul Beasts here. As for who would help him, of course it would be Dugu Bo. With this Old Monster around, there was no need for Tianlin to return and ask Chen Xin for help.

Dugu Bo's hair had not only completely returned to the gray-white color of a normal old man, but was even gradually turning black. His detoxification was nearly complete. Though he was still level ninety-two, without toxins weighing him down and without needing to devote Soul Power to suppressing the poison within his body, his actual combat strength was nearly twice what it had been before.

"Little Monster, what kind of Soul Beast are you looking for? I've lived in Sunset Forest for decades, and I know the large and small Soul Beast habitats here quite well. Whatever you need, this old man can find it for you," Dugu Bo said. He was deeply grateful to Tianlin and had always wanted a chance to repay him.

Hunting a Soul Beast might not count as a great favor, but it was still a token of his gratitude, was it not?

"Then thank you in advance, Old Monster. I'm looking for a wind-attributed Soul Beast. As for its age, around five to six thousand years. Do you know where I can find one?" Tianlin had long had plans for his Third Spirit Ring.

Dugu Bo stopped when he heard this. "I do, but are you sure you want one that old? Do you know that the usual limit for a Soul Master's Third Spirit Ring is around seventeen hundred years? You're exceeding it by more than three thousand years!"

"Old Monster, I know you're worried about me, but please rest assured. I never do anything I'm not confident about. My Second Spirit Ring had already entered the thousand-year range. After obtaining the External Soul Bone, my Mental Power became strong enough to rival that of a Soul Ancestor. Now, after undergoing the Ice-Fire Golden Body, my physical strength has caught up as well. Absorbing a five- or six-thousand-year Spirit Ring will be no problem at all!" Tianlin declared with utter confidence.

"Fine. Then this Old Monster will go mad with you, Little Monster, just once. Follow me, but prepare yourself mentally. This old man doesn't dote on you as much as your master does. I won't go looking for a Soul Beast with weak offensive power for you." Dugu Bo already had something in mind.

Within a canyon on the western side of Sunset Forest lived a kind of Soul Beast that was very suitable for Tianlin. However, it was exceptionally ferocious. Absorbing such a Spirit Ring would be far more difficult than absorbing that of the Purple Fire Golden Eyes Beast.